to us which Objection may seem to have some kind of share in all the other we say That Inclinations and Appetites may be considered either as belonging to Nature in a pure and perfect State or as it is corrupted and depraved for deeply corrupted our Nature is and was observed so to be by the Heathen wise Men though they were ignorant of the cause why it was so Now the Laws of Christ do not oppose Mens Inclinations and Appetites considering Nature in its perfect State but do then only correct and curb them when by reason of the Corruption of our Nature they are crooked and irregular and lanch out into Vicious Excesses In a word The Design of our Lord in his Laws is to reduce us as much as possible to our Primitive Perfection Not in a Stoical manner to beat down our Appetites out to rectifie them that they may be truly commendable in themselves and may convince us of the Equity of the Commands of Christ by giving an Eternal Pleasure and Satisfaction unto us For if any Man do his Will he shall quickly find that his Commands are not grievous but that all his Ways are Pleasantness and all his Paths are Peace If it shall be urged That our Natures are here incapable of such a Perfection as is talk'd of and therefore that the Laws which enjoyn it are unreasonable we may reply That our Natures as now they are are capable of far greater Perfection and Regularity than these who thus plead are willing to admit of And we may say that even now there are Inclinations of two sorts Those that arise from Nature and Those that we ourselves do in a great measure make Nature requires but what is enough but ill Desires heightned by ill Customs require for Luxury and Excess Now Temperance amidst our Earthly Enjoyments Contentation in the State which God hath placed us in A Readiness to part with somthing of our Abundance for the good of those that need A Charity in interpreting their Actions well And a neglecting of Vain-glory and such like things as these are not such impossible things to be performed Nay the contrary shall perhaps bring more Difficulties and Pains than the Observance of these Laws shall For we must not forget that there is such a thing as Reason which is no less Natural unto us than any Inclinations or Appetites we have yea it may justly claim the Precedence of them They being in a great measure common unto Vs and Beasts but This the Peculiar of Men only And what is the use of this thing call'd Reason which is so Natural unto us but this viz. To regulate our Appetites and Inclinations when they grow exorbitant and to give us the great Satisfaction of having acted like Men So that in an impartial Consideration of things it will be found to be more agreeable to Nature to repress our sensitive Appetites and Inclinations by Reason than to give them their swinge without Reason The Rational part in Man being far the more Noble Now Reason cannot but approve of and close with these Excellent and Refined Laws of our Lord. Nay our Inclinations themselves would we but seriously set ourselves to the bringing them into order might in some time be duly brought into it And truly it hath been very well observed of the Constitutions of particular Persons and we therein may give Praise to him that made us that as every Temperament doth some way or other evilly dispose the Man so his being thus disposed sets him at the greater distance from another Evil. As the being prone to Fearfulness removes him far from the opposite Evil of Presumptuousness Nay he is hereby rendred somthing inclined to that Good which lies next to his Disposition the All-wise God so ordering it that defects are not wholly destitute of somthing at Hand to make them up Thus the being Cholerick enclines the Man to Zealousness Melancholy bends him towards Devotion The being Phlegmatick borders him upon Perseverance A Proneness to Anger prompts him to Activeness So that if we ourselves will but be prudent and resolute in bringing the ill inclinations of our Nature or of our particular Constitutions into Order according to the Laws of our Lord we shall find it a work not so intolerably hard as some would make it and would have others believe it to be And as thus our Dispositions if well managed are not averse from a right Improvement so our Affections and Desires if they be but removed from an Object less good to one that is more Excellent and this may oftentimes easily be done they may retain the same earnestness and find more rational Gratifications Yea somtimes the Work is less and it is only the bringing the Affection somthing lower or raising it a little higher and the Object need not be changed We see how much Use and Exercise will prevail upon Men's Bodies to make them Supple and Pliant unto those Motions which Nature of itself is unacquainted with and shall the Soul of Man not be able to correct Natural but Corrupt Inclinations Let us take but as much pains with our Souls as some have done with their Bodies and I doubt not but through Gods Grace we shall make them as pliable to the Motions of Goodness and Virtue as some Men's Joynts and Limbs are to those Motions which at the first they were so unapt unto It was as I Remember in the Objection you brought That These Laws are unreasonable to us as we are Men whereas Theophilus as we are Men they in a peculiar manner are fitted for Vs and for no Beings beside Those that are Brutal by their being destitute of understanding are below them And those that are Heavenly viz. Blessed Angels and Saints seem to be above them whose Appetites wholly bent to the love of Holiness can never be guilty of excess Their Pleasures admit of no Temperance nor Restrictions but the more high and exerted they be the more refined and excellent they are But we are of a middle Nature between the Brutal and the Heavenly and partake somthing of both Our Pleasures are dangerous our Appetites are very apt to be excessive and we have Understanding to moderate and repress them and therefore we are carefully to do it that from such Voluntary Restraints we may be Virtuous and have praise both with God and Men. And indeed a curbing of the Appetites of Nature even these Men themselves however they object it against the Laws of Christ will upon more considerate thoughts like well of and commend They cannot but approve of the Fidelity of those to each other whom the Marriage-Bond hath united and they would detest a Spurious Issue to be brought forth by those whom they have by Wedlock enclosed to themselves alone But this could not be but by some restraint put upon those Appetites which are Natural And shall they be willing to admit of such Restraints for the good of the Community and for their
for the Welfare of Society are those which are enjoyn'd by God. Such likewise are those that respect ourselves Why the Law is called The Ministration of Death by St. Paul. What he meaneth when he saith He was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and he died And how the Mosaick Law is termed A Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear P. 1. The Contents of the Second Discourse THE Inducements that Christians have to Love the Divine Law. Love was the moving cause of our Lord 's becoming our Law-giver The Greatness of our Lawgivers Person All the troublesome Ceremonies of the Old Law are done away by the Laws of our Lord and this not by his Will alone but by the admirable manifestation of his Goodness and Wisdom How the Jews urging the Everlastingness of their Law is from hence answered and how their way of Speaking is corrected when they say our Lawgiver hath vilified and destroy'd their Laws Only such Laws are enjoyn'd by our Lord as have in them an Intrinsick Goodness or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one Though the Jews had some Inferiour Laws suted to their Temper and Climate which did the better fit them for the observance of those Laws which were Moral yet we have not the less reason to Love the Laws of our Lord because they are all Good without any mixture of such Inferiour Laws which may be agreeable to different Climates where Christians Live and which may promote the Precepts of our Lord are not by those Precepts excluded Christian Laws are such also as will in our Obedience much comply with our particular Way and Temper The Moral Laws which were given to the Jews are by our Lord more fully and clearly given The Laws that respect ourselves are properly belonging io the New Testament At least are there only directly and openly injoyn'd The Objection answer'd that so far is the Christian Law from being more clearly given that it requires us to admit of some things relating to Faith which no one living can conceive how they should be The Reasonableness of making our Vnderstandings to yield to our Faith. P. 35. The Contents of the Third Discourse THE Severities of the Christian Laws are not unreasonable neither do they reduce us to such straights as cannot be gone through without a great deal of uneasiness if at all The Design of our Lord is not to beat down our Natural Inclinations and Appetites but to rectifie them Our Dispositions if well managed not averse from a right Improvement The Laws of Christ do not dash the pleasure of Conversation by threatning idle Words with the Day of Judgment The Loving of Enemies while they persist to be injurious is in itself not unmeet but highly equitable in case the History of our Redemption be true Fasting and Abstinence not unreasonable nor the parting with Estates and Lives for the asserting of the Gospel From the Laws of Christ we have a fair way for the Pardon of all Sins What the Law of Faith requires of us How much it is different from the Old Law. What the Law of Repentance is Too many make Faith and Repentance to stand in opposition to the other Laws of our Lord. How the Laws being done away which was Engraven on Stones is to be understood Repentance for Sin cannot without the greatest Absurdity be wrested to the further and more safe committing of Sin. The Examples of the Thief on the Cross and of the Labourers in the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour consider'd none of the Divine Laws unsuitable to one another These Laws of themselves are grievous unto none As they have relation only to Civil Society and the welfare of Men in this World they do far surpass those of the most noted Lawgivers they by no means do favour the Opinion that Right of Possession is Founded in Grace And that it is Lawful to resist Sovereign Princes in the Maintenance of True Religion They make the Man truly beautiful within P. 66. The Contents of the Fourth Discourse GEneral Motives relating to these Laws altogether To the Conscionable Observance of them Eternal Rewards are promised yet Earthly ones are not excluded For the securing of our Obedience Eternal Punishments are threatned after Death to the neglect of these Laws The Constituting such Punishments is no more than what is meet to be done Stronger Assistances are afforded for the Performance of these Laws than under Moses there were Most Loving Invitations and Affectionate Expressions are joyned with them We have no reason to complain that there are not now under the Gospel-Law those Visible Expressions of Gods Power and Presence as under the Old Law there were Particular Motives relating to these Laws singly and apart Such as are wholly peculiar to the Gospel or else are there more clearly and convincingly urged than ever they were before It is impossible there should be any True Happiness without these Laws From the inward Excellence of them and those admirable Motives annexed to them there is a substantial Proof of their Divinity and Truth No Man hath ever deserved to be so much honoured among Men as our Lord hath done Those who faithfully give up their Names unto him have the Precedence of all others How it comes to pass that since the Law is so good Assistances so great and Motives so taking there should be so many Disobedient Ones P. 114. The Contents of the Fifth Discourse THough the Generality of Men be Wicked and by occasion of these Laws being given shall suffer the greater Torments hereafter yet it would not thereupon have been better that these Laws should not have been given The impious folly of those Men who are willing to flatter themselves with God's being so much a God of Mercy as that he will not destroy them though they walk contrary to his Laws An Explication of I am the Light of the World. Why Miracles were confined to the first Ages of the Church That Prophecy made good viz. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb c. The great Goodness of God in making these Laws to reach so wide as the whole World. His great Wisdom and Mercy in putting these his Laws into Writing and enjoyning the frequent Reading and Preaching of them The Reasonableness that these Laws should endure without Abrogation or Change so long as the World shall stand The great expectation which was of this our Lawgiver for so many Ages and in every respect his answering of it may prevail much for Mens Obedience to his Laws The Righteousness and Goodness of these Laws will manifest themselves to those who are sincerely Obedient P. 150. The Contents of the Sixth Discourse NOt a few think themselves secure in their actings if they can shew that some good Men in Holy Writ or some well accounted of since have done the like Examples of Good Men to be imitated no further than
by using their Power to the depriving them of what is theirs the Tenth Commandment is by a just consequence a strong Law. They are therein forbid to Covet any thing much less then are they to take by force that which is their Neighbours and the meaner sort surely may bear the Name of Neighbour to those who are higher But there is an express Precept Levit. 25.17 You shall not oppress one another no not a Stranger Chap. 22.17 No nor a Servant that is escaped from an hard Master Deut. 23.16 Nor shut thine Hand from him nor thine Eye against him Chap. 15.7.9 Yea Excellent Laws were made for good Deeds to be done unto them The Corners of the Field were not to be fully Reaped nor the Gleanings of the Vintage to be gathered but left for them Levit. 18. Whatsoever grew every Seventh year was not to be inned and a Release was also then to be made of all Debts i. e. of all Debts owing by the Poor to the Rich. And lest a Man should from the thoughts of this years Release be the more strait-handed to his poor Brother there is is a special caution given in this point Deut. 15. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked Heart saying the Seventh year the year of Release is at hand and thine Eye be evil against thy poor Brother thou shalt surely give him And at the year of Jubile which was every Fiftieth year there was an Universal Freedom and Joy every Man might return to his Possession and every Servant to his own Family Yea this year as it expressed the greatest Mercy and Gladness when it came so it stretched forth Righteousness and Mercy to all other the years For thus it is Lev. 25. According to the number of years after the Jubile thou shalt buy of thy Neighbour and according to the number of the Fruits he shall sell unto thee according to the multitude of years thou shalt encrease the price thereof and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price thereof ye shall not therefore oppress one another but thou shalt fear the Lord thy God. And then in general all Persons were upon occasion to shew Love and Kindnesses and to have them shew'd back again to themselves And by such Acts as these as also by the abstaining from Adulteries Thefts False-Testimonies and such like ill Actions Society was to be kept up and Righteousness and Peace maintain'd It is Theophilus delightful to consider how by Laws even towards Beasts Birds and Trees God minded his People of a kind and good deportment one towards another The Ewe and her Lamb were not to killed both in one day Levit 22.28 Neither was the Old Bird to be taken with her Eggs or Young but in any wise to be let go that it might be well with them Deut. 22.6 Such seeming Cruelty must not be committed as to seethe a Kid in its Mothers Milk Exod. 23.19 And the Fruit-Trees though in a Siege against an Enemy must not be cut down but spared and this out of a kind of Gratitude because they bring forth for the Life of Man Deut. 20.19 So every way do these Laws tend to the planting of good Nature and sociable Virtues And surely such Laws as these might well have the Expression of Love towards them Consider Theophilus a Commonwealth well govern'd as That of the Jews was and all Happiness accruing unto it as to That there did and tell me if those Laws be not worthy to be loved One Law indeed there was which the Jews afterwards complain'd of as bringing them into great Straits and Troubles viz. That which commanded their Ground not to be Tilled and their Increase not to be gathered by the Owners every seventh year For since Pecuniary Tributs were exacted of them and their Field-encreases were the Foundation of their Coin they found themselves when their Crops were not brought home to be in great measure disabled for the answering such Taxations And therefore when Alexander the Great at Jerusalem had learnt out of Daniel's Prophesie that the Persian Empire should be overthrown by a Man that was a Greek and thereupon as persuaded that Himself was the Person had bid the Jews ask of him some great Boon they signified to him that a greater Privilege could not be granted them than the being freed from the seventh years Tribute which Request they obtain'd of him But though this Law proved heavy to them yet it was not from any defect in the Institution but from their Sins By these they forfeited God's Favour and gave him cause to turn that Law into their Punishment which he first made for the exercise of Mercy among themselves and for the manifesting of his own Power and Goodness towards them For thus we find it Lev. 25.20 21 22. If ye shall say What shall we eat the seventh year behold we shall not sow nor gather in our encrease then I will command my Blessing upon you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth fruit for three years And ye shall sow the eighth year and eat yet of old fruit the ninth year until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store If their Land fail'd of its Fertility A fruitful Land was turn'd into Barrenness for the Wickedness of them that dwelt therein According as it was expresly foretold Lev. 26.20 If you will not hearken unto me your Land shall not yield her Increase nor the Trees their Fruit. Hitherto of the Laws which respected the Jews from one another As to the Laws which related to Themselves in their own Persons I will say only this and it is enough to shew an amiable Excellence in them viz. That they are such as make a Man calm in his Breast and strong in his Body Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self supposeth that a Man is to love Himself and the Supposition is built upon and is as valid as a Law A more benign Law than which what Man is it can desire He is hereby not to torture himself by Anxious Cares and Envious Thoughts He is engaged likewise not to impair his Health by any manner of Excess for in doing either the one or the other he would not be his own Friend nor love himself And this hath an excellent tendency to Friendship abroad also He who loves himself so well as not to envy others will by others not be envied but loved And He who for his own Welfare will be temperate and sober is rightly fitted for the being faithful and for the having Trust reposed in him And thus Theophilus we have briefly run through these Laws And if you consider them as to the Moral part they naturally tend to the establishing of a People in Peace and Prosperity And may therefore deservedly be loved And if you consider them altogether they had some things from without that might preserve Mens Love towards them from growing Faint viz. Gods especial promise of Earthly
himself afterwards with respect to his Adultery and Murther to say Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it Psal 51. There not being any Sacrifices provided for such Sins And hereupon the Law is called The Ministration of Death when yet to those that were Obedient the Priviledges it gave were many and so for those as for the Excellency which in itself it had might be loved That other Scripture to wit I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died We if we take it as spoken in the Person of the Apostle and not rather by a Figure for others are not so to understand it as if he were the worse for the Law and might date his Death from it But thus While he look'd upon himself and his own Actions without a due Examination of them according to the exactness of the Law he might think himself to be in very good plight and free from danger But when he compared his Actions and Performances with the exceeding Accurateness of the Law the Actions which before look'd well appear'd sinful and he saw his Danger and Demerits to be very great Whereas the Law in itself was holy and the Commandment holy and just and good and so for its own worth might be loved Your last Scripture is this viz. That the Mosaick Law is termed A Yoke which neither We nor our Fathers were able to bear To this it may be replyed That we are not to take these words in a strict sense as if the Apostles and Jews could not bear that Yoke but thus They could not bear it without difficulty For we know that they had born it for many Generations from the time of Moses to that day Besides Neither was it a Yoke absolutely consider'd For God in the giving of these Laws did as a great Man interprets it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13.18 bear with some of their Manners which the use of those Times had taught them and made his Sanctions suitable in many things to their being under-age as it were and too weak as yet for more perfect Institutions But it is therefore term'd A Yoke with reference to that Freedom and those very great Priviledges which are brought unto us by Christ In Comparison of These it is little better than a Bondage When yet before it was a great Honour to the Jews and such as They only had a share in The Heathens as they were Heathens having nothing to do in it You have Theophilus what at present I think may be replyed to the Scriptures you brought Yourself could possibly to your own Satisfaction better have answered them But if you are any way pleased with what I have said and can reap though but the least of that Spiritual Advantage you in the beginning of our Discourse spake of I shall be the less solicitous for the excusing of my Failures DISCOURSE the Second The Contents THE Inducements that Christians have to Love the Divine Law. Love was the moving cause of our Lords becoming our Law-giver The Greatness of our Lawgivers Person All the troublesome Ceremonies of the Old Law are done away by the Laws of our Lord and this not by his Will alone but by the admirable manifestation of his Goodness and Wisdom How the Jews urging the Everlastingness of their Law is from hence answered and how their way of Speaking is Corrected when they say our Lawgiver hath vilified and destroy'd their Laws Only such Laws are enjoyn'd by our Lord as have in them an Intrinsick Goodness or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one Though the Jews had some Inferiour Laws suted to their Temper and Climate which did the better fit them for the observance of those Laws which were Moral yet we have not the less reason to Love the Laws of our Lord because they are all Good without any mixture of such Inferiour Laws Laws which may be agreeable to different Climates where Christians Live and which may promote the Precepts of our Lord are not by those Precepts excluded Christian Laws are such also as will in our Obedience much comply with our particular Way and Temper The Moral Laws which were given to the Jews are by our Lord more fully and clearly given The Laws that respect ourselves are properly belonging to the New Testament At least are there only directly and openly injoyn'd The Objection answer'd that so far is the Christian Law from being more clearly given that it requires us to admit of some things relating to Faith which no one living can conceive how they should be The Reasonableness of making our Vnderstandings to yield to our Faith. THEOPHILVS I Am very glad Eubulus I have once more your good Company and from the privacy of the place the calmness of the Weather and the leisure you at present have you will I hope go on where Yesterday you left off For I have a great desire to hear the Inducements which Christians have to Love the Divine Law. EVBVLVS YOur desire shall be complied with not because I think I can so much inform you but because those things which we already know are made more Active upon us when we hear they are the Sentiments of others as well as our own Theoph. You will make whatever Truths after this manner shall be quickned in me to belong to yourself as being Watered at least if not Planted by you Besides since the things that lie only in our thoughts do not usually so much affect us as they do when we bring them out into Words it is to be imagined that yourself will not be wholly destitute of benefit while you are kind unto me Eubul Well then with Prayers that it may be for the Ghostly Health of us both we will proceed The Inducements that Christians have for the Loving the Divine Law which are far greater than what the Jews had may I presume be collected from the consideration of these things viz. The Lawgiver The Laws themselves and those Motives which are annexed unto them for the securing of our Obedience As to what concerns the Lawgiver it may very much contribute to the Love of the Christian Law That Love was the moving Cause of his becoming our Lawgiver The Punishment which Mankind for the breach of the Command in Paradise was from Gods Justice to suffer the Son of God was willing in our Nature to undergo himself And though God the Father if he had so pleased might have refus'd that any should bear the Punishment besides those who had deserv'd it for the Law when it is Trangress'd doth require that the Offenders should suffer in their own Persons The Soul that Sinneth it shall dye yet he was pleased to accept of his Son in our stead Accounting the Reverence of his Laws which by the Sins of Mankind had been Violated to be sufficiently maintain'd by his Death But on this condition only would God accept of his
and in Mercy accepted by God. But the Scripture accounts of it as a thing not ordinary and as it were out of the usual course Let us except that one instance of the Thief on the Cross which is to be looked upon as a special and un-common Example and therefore it stands by itself in the whole Book of God And we shall find the Gospel to promise in the usual Current of it Eternal Rewards to that Obedience only which hath Perseverance joyned with it and which lasts unto not begins at the end of Life He that endureth to the end shall be saved and be thou faithful unto Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Such considerations as these Theophilus for the true Conception of Faith and Repentance are requisite abroad where so many either do not understand them rightly or else are willing by false arguings to make them serve for quite other than Christian Ends. And to Vs they may be of use at least so far as to stir up our Grief that the favour of our Lord in the Pardoning of Sins should by any be abused to their greater Condemnation Theoph. They not only encline me to grieve for these miserable Men who are so much their own Enemies but do also give me a pleasure in conceiving these instances of Holy Writ mentioned by you more fully and to better advantage than before I did That knowledge being most of all others delightful to me and satisfactory which ariseth from the Laws of our Lord or which is instrumental to the better understanding and practising of them Eubul I am sure These Laws of Faith and Repentance are well worthy our Love as for the Excellence of their Effects so for the Sacredness of their Matter What an inward pleasure is it to conceive the Son of God leaving the Glory of Heaven to live upon Earth and become one among the Sons of Men How may it engage all the Powers of the Soul into a Divine Love while we contemplate him in in the Garden sweating as it were great drops of Blood and shedding afterwards the remainder thereof upon the Cross amidst bitter pains for our Sake This is indeed in itself matter of the sadest kind But in respect of Vs what Wonder and Joy may it not excite But then if we by Faith look upon our Lord as he is Ascended into Heaven to prepare Mansions for us and as he shall come again in the Clouds with great Glory that where He is there We may be also with what an Holy Splendour will our understandings be entertain'd Men are usually taken with great things State and Grandeur though such in appearance only draw the Eyes of the most if really such they be and do carry in them true Worth as here they eminently do they engage the Hearts also of the Wise and the Good. Truly our Faith from the Sweet and Admirable matter it is fraught with may well work by Love Love not only to God and Men but even to the Law likewise by which it is enjoyn'd Such Majesty as is included in our Faith is not I confess to be found in Repentance which consists chiefly in those Actions that are Humble and Lowly But how comely is it that an offending Soul should be humbled before an offended God who at such Submission and Sorrow condescends and accepts it with the greatest Love A Face which hath so Holy a Sadness in it and is wet with such Religious Tears cannot but appear amiable Yea even to the Person who thus repenteth there ariseth a secret Satisfaction in the midst of Sorrow and it is none of the least Chearings to him that he can grieve in earnest for his Sins against so gracious a Father And thus much Theophilus may suffice for the Consideration of the Laws themselves And if like Those who walking over pleasant Fields and flowery Meads as not content alone with Delights in the Way will look back and bring into one prospect what successively and by parts did so much please them we shall turn our Eyes back upon these Laws and behold them in the Bulk which singly were so excellent they will afford us a new Delight in the Review There is none of them that is unsuty and disagreeing to another They are not like that Face whose Features by themselves were beauteous but united were uncomely but they are such as increase each others Lustre and shew a Symmetry altogether Divine Theoph. It is so Eubulus When I consider the Laws which require Duties to God I am the more in love with those which enjoyn my Behaviour towards Men. And when I weigh those that relate to others and myself those towards God appear more advantageously to me and I presently am excited to put them into practice by reverencing loving and praising Him who hath given such Laws unto us Every particular Precept towards God towards Men towards myself enkindles my Affection towards the rest and they Altogether do highly set off and commend to my Love every Particular And this our Love to the Divine Law is not like our Love in many other cases which when we recollect ourselves and betake us to serious Thoughts goes less For the gaining Acceptance and esteem no need is there of those Artifices that the Religious Institutions among the Heathens had which from Hieroglyphicks Fables pompous and divers Superstitions were served up rather to the Imaginative Faculty than to the Understanding and made to please not the Wise so much as the Multitude The Christian Laws fear not the most piercing and critical Eyes looking into them They discovering the greatest Excellency to him who hath the quickest Sight and profoundest Judgment joyn'd with an Upright Mind And therefore our Love to them gets new Strength from Consideration as having Right Reason for a Foundation from which like an House built upon a Rock it may stand strongly and not be cast down nor abated for any Wind or Waters that may come against it Eubul And truly Theophilus I find it a very great Inducement for the raising our Love to these Laws that They of themselves are grievous unto none but as the Manna was are in a sort fitted to every Palate unless to those that are grievously vitiated Who is it that ever had just cause to repent he had yielded Obedience to them To whom in the exercise do they not bring Content and Satisfaction If at any time they seem to create Trouble to a Man it is rather because others trangress them than because he himself observeth them A thing which cannot be said of other Laws Some of those which are profitable for the Community are not so for some particular Men who for the publick Good must be content to bear some private Inconveniences and some advantageous to a few Persons may not be so to a Nation in general Neither is there any thing in its own Nature truly Good which is omitted in their Injunctions nor any thing in
its own Nature truly Evil forgotten in their Prohibitions Nor can there be any the least occasion as in the wisest Human Constitutions somtimes there is for second Thoughts to add any thing unto or alter any thing in them Yea Theophilus if we consider the Laws of our Lord as they have relation only to Civil Society and the Welfare of Men in this World how far do they surpass those of the most noted Lawgivers We find not among his Laws any that look like that of Solon which required that All in Publick Seditions should run and joyn with the juster Part and ordered that if any did not so be should for ever after be infamous For when specious Pretences should make as very often they do the Worst Side to the Many look fairer than that which is is really the Better and every one must of necessity take his Sword into his Hand what a Flame would there hereby be blown up in a Commonwealth without any probable means left of quenching it but by large Effusion of Blood So that Plutarch might well call this a singular and altogether New Law nor would the good Intent out-weigh the sad Consequences of it had it upon occasion been faithfully put in practice He doth not institute with Lycurgus That Youth from Hardships of Education should be inured to Thieve for their Meat and should be commended if they could do it cunningly and without being found out An ill Foundation surely for Honesty in greater Matters to be built upon when they should be Men. Neither doth he with Plato in his Republick take away a Fatherly Affection and Filial Duty by indulging a Community of Women Nor hath he any Law like that of Aristotle in his Politicks which enjoyns That Lame and Deformed Children should be cast out and not suffer'd to live And as none of our Lords Laws are in themselves evil or of bad consequence to Society as these now mention'd and others that might be mentioned are so if any Law of his shall by Craft and an ill Mind be made injurious unto any there are other Laws which come in for a right bounding of such a Law and do allow no room for Guile and Fraud to work upon If any shall on purpose to our wrong make use of the Law that requires If a Man smite us on one Cheek to turn the other or of that which bids us Give to every one that asketh of us and of him that taketh away our Goods not to ask them again which Laws are in a signal manner designed for the establishing of Peace and Charity there are Laws that secure these to a Rational Practice by telling these Men That Whatsoever they would i. e. in Right Reason would that Men should do unto them they themselves should do the same to others And by allowing ourselves to call the Serpents Wisdom to the Doves Innocence Had there been such Provision made by the Athenian Lawgiver for the right limiting of his Law which required the Cancelling of all Obligations and Debts past That which was well intended for the Relief of the Poor had not proved so great an Oppression to others as it did The Fraud of many had been prevented and the Reputation of his own Justice had not been hurt Neither do our Saviours Laws fit us only for one State of Life and render us altogether unapt to another as it is observed Lycurgus's did They tended chiefly to make the Lacedemonians able for War and were so ill constituted for Peace that when That People were free from Enemies abroad they quickly declined at home not so much by the â—reach of good Laws as by the Want of them Indeed the Laws of Christ do chiefly promote and establish Peace and do admirably provide against those Vices that are the attendants of Peace as Luxury Sloth Wantonness and such like but yet they no less instruct us to a right Deportment in Troublesom Times And moreover when a Righteous Cause puts a Sword into a Christian's Hand they teach him a Valour beyond that of other Men. A Valour which shall not owe itself to a Passion that overwhelms consideration but which shall be firm and well-grounded from an assured hope that God will either give success unto him here or will reward him after Death Whence Machiavel surely had small reason to reflect upon the Christian Laws as those which by teaching so much Meekness and Patience indisposed Men for great undertakings which according to him could not be accomplished without somthing of Cruelty And he ill-affirm'd the Religions of Old to fit Men better for mighty Actions as accustoming them by the Multitude of Sacrifices to Blood and Destruction Indeed if high Enterprizes did necessarily include a share of Inhumanity in them what this Man says might the better be attended unto But if those actions only are truly Noble in which Courage is regulated by Reason and adorned with Justice and Temperance how false and disingenuous an Imputation he fastens on the Laws of Christianity I need not say Theoph. The Laws of our Lord are indeed so constituted as that they highly promote the Welfare of Society in this World by establishing all those publick Virtues without which the publick Good could not subsist The more deplorable than it is that any who are Christians should from any words of our Lord or his Apostles take up and nourish Opinions that tend to the disturbance of Government and Society Two Opinions especially there are that do it which too many have been and are very ready to entertain the one is That whatever Right a Man hath to what he enjoys he hath it only by inward Holiness and Virtue Or in a Word That all Dominion is founded in Grace and this they infer from 1 Cor. 3.31 32. All are yours whether the World things present or things to come all are yours And hence if they have an high Opinion of their own Sanctity and a very low one of some other Mens they can easily persuade themselves to take as their own what the other have no just Title unto By which means Righteousness and Honesty which are the great Establishers of Society are as to these Persons destroyed and consequently Society itself disturb'd The other Opinion which for its illness may well be ranked with the now mention'd is this That Sovereign Princes may be Resisted in the Defence and Maintenance of True Religion as being that which is dearer than Life and must by no means be with parted And hence besides when Religion is really struck at if any Persons be disaffected to their Prince it is easie to pretend that he is no friend to Religion that he cares not which way it goes and unless timely means be used all will be lost And so Wars and Fightings arise and the publick welfare is miserably discomposed Eubul Whether through Weakness or an Evil Heart these Opinions are embraced I am sure the Laws of our Lord are no way chargeable with
Mercy unto those who are so unworthy of it Neither do they rightly infer That God's Mercy which is infinitely more than theirs will be shewn unto them because they themselves would be so merciful to the looser sort of Men as to save them while such from the Punishments which are threatned A great Indignity they offer unto the most Holy God in thus making Him to be such as Themselves are His Mercy is indeed infinitely more than theirs but yet of a Nature altogether different Theirs proceeds from weakness and an evil favouring of Sin And because their love to Righteousness and Holiness is little or none they would therefore effect more for wicked Men than God who hath all Power will do or if we consider his Justice and Wisdom more than with Reverence be it spoken he can do God is not less merciful than they but more just not less pitiful but more holy not beneath them in Compassion but infinitely above them in Wisdom And therefore let them not deceive themselves with vain Words and Thoughts God will in Righteousness inflict those Punishments upon them which they through a Vicious Mercy would have remitted unto others Theoph. I would to God such things as these were truly weighed by Men and urged home upon their own Consciences that they might at last discern the Fallacies they have been willing to put upon themselves even to their everlasting Destruction Eubul We now have Theophilus spoken to all those things which from the first we design'd and have found the Divine Laws to be every way excellent whether we consider The Lawgiver Love having been the primary moving Cause of his giving Laws unto us and this his Love being highly commended from the Greatness of his Person Or the Laws themselves all the troublesom Ceremonies of the Old Law being done away and that in so excellent a manner only such Laws being enjoyn'd as have in them an intrinsick goodness or else are for ends absolutely good and such as are discernable by every one Those Moral Laws which were given to the Jews being by our Lord more fully and clearly given And there being from these Laws a fair way for the pardon of all Sins Or lastly The Motives which are annexed to these Laws for the securing of Obedience whether they be more General relating to the Sacred Laws altogether as their having Eternal Rewards promised to the Observance of them and Eternal Punishments threatned to Disobedience Their having stronger Assistances afforded for the Performance of them than under the Old Law there were And last of all their having such loving Invitations and affectionate Expressions of Kindness joyned with them or whether more Particular belonging to them singly and apart as they respect God or Men in the several Relations they may stand in one to another or as they respect ourselves But though to our Power we have done this yet much short have we come of the Dignity of our subject And while the Apostle asks the Question Who is sufficient for these things We must acknowledge that we are altogether insufficient But since a good part of our Walk is yet to come it will not be amiss from the whole of what hath been said to make some Inferences not unagreeable to our Subject And this Task I am willing should be yours Theophilus who I knew are good at deducing one Truth from another and who will do kindly by me if you will let me be your Auditor now as you have mostly hitherto been mine Theoph. He is most fit to make the Inferences who made the Discourse But if it will not be unacceptable I will endeavour alternately to follow you if you will lead the way Eubul If it must be so only and you will not wholly excuse me I will begin And First Theophilus From the Divine Laws thus consider'd we have if I mistake not a true and just Explication of that place of Scripture Joh. 8.12 I am the Light of the World he that believeth in me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life They are the Words of our Blessed Lord and are to be understood of Him as a Lawgiver so cleerly hath he in his own Person made good those Types that were of him and dispell'd those shadows of things to come so excellently explain'd the Moral Law and given a new lustre to it so throughly Reveal'd Heavenly Rewards and brought Life and Immortality to Light. Hence in the Prophet Malachi He is call'd the Sun of Righteousness and in St. Luke he is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred in our Translation Day-Spring But whether so or the East or Sun-rising it certainly is a Title of our Lord as having done that in Relation to Spirituals and Good Practice which the Sun doth in its Rising and with its Presence viz. put to slight the Darkness wherewith we were encompassed And thus the People that Lived in Evil Practices and in Ignorance of the Divine Laws are said to sit in Darkness and in the shadow of Death Mat. 4.16 and from our Lords coming are said to see great Light and to have Light sprung up unto them Which must necessarily be understood of his instructing them giving them Laws and revealing unto them Eternal Rewards for the quickning their Obedience thereunto And this possibly may give us some insight into that place of Scripture also Which hath been so difficult unto and in a sort the Torture of Interpreters 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ being put to Death in the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit by which also he went and Preached to the Souls in PRISON i. e. to those whose Souls within them were through Ignorance and Evil Practice as in the Darkness of a Prison The Light of Nature being almost quite extinct To These He through the Spirit Preached by the Mouth of Noah By his Laws it is therefore and by other things upon their account Revealed that Christ is the Light of the World. And after the same manner is God the Father said to be Light as having by these Laws through Jesus Christ shewn what He Himself is what he chiefly and most earnestly doth Will Desire and Love insomuch that we cannot likely be mistaken in his Nature unless we will be so either through Perverseness or Negligence Should any of those Heathens who in Relation to Human Welfare had undervaluing Opinions of the Deity have read these Laws with the Inestimable Encouragements annexed unto them they when they had seen the greatest Prosperity to have its allays of Trouble and all Men sooner or later to Die could not any longer have thought that God out of Envy and ill Nature would not permit an unmixt Happiness in this World or that he would keep Immortality to himself as by no means enduring that any should be partakers of it with him It is but the due considering these Sacred Precepts as they proceed from our Lords being given into the World and God cannot but be
other Who is it can look upon and not be highly pleased in them But all These are nothing else but the Excellencies of the Laws of our Lord And shall we not Reverence shall we not Love them If I say we would in the Laudable actions of Men though much distant from the Perfection of the Laws of Christ often cast our Thoughts upon those Laws acknowledging the Beauty to belong unto them which in all these things is really derived from them it would be no more than a due Expression of Esteem and Love towards them and at the best much â—â—ow their Excellency Meet therefore surely it is when we have a Mind to do any thing and have an Example of the same ready in Sacred Scripture that we think not ourselves presently authoriz'd thereby to do it Some actions even of good Men who are now happy in Heaven having not been always nor altogether Good. Let us make the Precepts of the Gospel to be our Touchstone and by comparing the Example with the Rule we shall quickly find whether it will hold good for our Practice or no. Choose we either those Examples of Holy Writ which in the whole or those which in some part of them are the Image of a Divine Law and thereupon have a perpetual Rectitude Yet in these later be sure to avoid that part of the Example which is transgressive of the Command As for those which had a Warrant only for the Time in which they were done they lay no more obligation upon us now than Circumcision and Sacrifices do but are wholly to be shunn'd And those which the Law of God is silent in and which are therefore merely indifferent we may justly esteem ourselves no more bound by them than we are to wear a Seamless Coat or to lye along every time we eat unless Human Laws shall upon Prudential accounts enjoyn the doing them And then for other Examples Theophilus not recorded in Scripture They also are to be Examined by the Rule If in any thing they deviate from the Laws of Christ we are not to follow them though they be grown the Practice of Many and of some who may seem to be more Understanding and Religious than most of their Neighbors Always bearing in mind that the Best have their Errors and Frailties and that the most dangerous Errors in Religion are for the most part if not always usher'd in with Semblances of Holiness more than ordinary which to wise Men do often betray themselves by being over-acted But the Divine Laws are in every respect sincere and perfect and will lead us into no paths but such as will undoubtedly bring us unto Happiness They have no Interest to set up besides the Glory of God and the everlasting Welfare of Souls And will bear the being search'd into themselves as well as they require that other things be proved by them We may through them find out the failures of many specious Actions and Pretences but may despair in any example to see those Excellences which are not in far greater measures in Them. And Thus Theophilus as well as I could I have answered your Request In the doing of which I cannot reasonably be thought to have detracted any thing from Sacred Examples by having made them wholly dependent on Sacred Laws Were there generally a greater Caution used in Those and a greater Love shewed to These Men would walk more Surely Themselves and would set far better Copies unto Others Theoph. I dare say none of those Holy Men who have left us their good Examples would think those good Examples injured by what you have said Since their greatest Care in them was to obey God's Law And their greatest Pleasure from them was to have done it This your kindness Eubulus together with your other shall I hope find that Entertainment with me which you would wish And among the Virtues which they tend to promote I will see that Friendship and Gratitude shall not be wanting DISCOURSE the Seventh The Contents COncerning the Divine Law as taken in a larger Sense Of the Historical part of Scripture particularly of the Creation All other Opinions concerning the Being of the World are cold and unaffecting Of the Fall of Man. It gives Light to many things which otherwise we should never have known the reason of The sad effects of our Fall are in great measure corrected by God's Mercy and made Comfortable to us Many things in the dark and mingled with falsities in profane Authors we may from hence more clearly discern Sacred History shews forth God's immediate Hand and plainly tells us that he punished and rewarded for such and such reasons Of the History of our Redemption How wonderful it is and what a Sacredness runs through all the Circumstances of our Lord's Conception Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension The great evidence of these things Of the Prophetical part of Scripture Especially of those Prophecies relating to our Blessed Saviour As Divine Truth is eminently seen in all of them so the quick and various workings of Providence for the fulfilling of some of them are very delightful The Predictions of the Heathen Oracles much different from these The Sibyllin Prophecies of suspected Credit Of the Adhortative part of Holy Writ God hath used the most taking words for the prevailing with Men for Obedience In the Gospel there is nothing wanting that may work upon the Soul of Man. Of the Devotional part of Sacred Scripture It consisteth of such Services were fit for Men to pay unto their God and needed not Secresie to shelter them from an Honest Ear or Chast Eye Devotion raised to a much greater perfection by having our Lord and the Holy Spirit so nearly concerned in it Those persons quite mistake what they read in Sacred Scripture who find a pleasure therein without any respect to the Divine Law properly as such What we are to think of those who are conscientiously Obedient to the Divine Law but yet find not that Delight therein which Earthly things do frequently give them and who hereupon are very apt to interpret their Love to God's Precepts to be unsincere and such as will be rejected The great reasonableness and Benefit of Holy Meditation THEOPHILVS I Remember Eubulus that as by the Word Law you understood the Preceptive Part of the Bible which you have hitherto discoursed of so you did not exclude from it what ever else is contained in Holy Writ EVBVLVS YEs Theophilus we may in a larger Sense understand this also And indeed since all Scriptures have some way or other a respect to the Precepts thereof therefore the Word Law doth oftentimes import the whole Scripture as is manifest in these places John 10. It is written in your LAW I have said ye are Gods. And Cap. 12. We have heard out of the LAW that Christ abideth for ever and Cap. 15. It is written in their LAW they hated me without a cause All which places are not in the
be when yet they have the greatest Arguments to convince them that they are May not God exceed their Understandings in things relating to Heaven as much as in things belonging unto Earth And if the things which are seen are in great measure in the Dark to them shall they contradict those things which are not seen meerly because they cannot equal them with their Thoughts Because Christ is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anatomiz'd as it were Naked and open unto Men as Men are unto Him shall they therefore have no Faith in him But as I said before Although the Things we are to believe are high who can throughly know them yet the Law that bids us believe is Clear and Intelligible And it may very well deserve our Love because there are none of these Mysteries which we are to believe but what our Wellfare and Happiness are Founded in and what are instrumental to the Birth and Exercise of those excellent Virtues which the other Laws of our Lord do enjoyn Yea so far as they are Revealed unto us they are to be Rested in not Pryed into And we shall not think amiss if we persuade ourselves they shall hereafter be more fully manifested unto us as a Reward of the Obedience of our Understandings here You 'l excuse me Theophilus that I have been so long on this Answer though truly I could not well help it since the Objection or rather Objectors seem'd to require it Theoph. You shall have your pardon on one Condition that you will be guilty of the like fault in Answering the next Eubul It is very likely I may However I shall not be over Solicitous because I have my pardon before Hand But it begins to be late Every thing is bending Homewards and minds us of what we likewise are to do The next Evening will I hope allow us that Hour which this denies us DISCOURSE the Third The Contents THE Severities of the Christian Laws are not unreasonable neither do they reduce us to such straights as cannot be gone through without a great deal of uneasiness if at all The Design of our Lord is not to beat down our Natural Inclinations and Appetites but to rectifie them Our Dispositions if well managed not averse from a right Improvement The Laws of Christ do not dash the pleasure of Conversation by threatning idle Words with the Day of Judgment The Loving of Enemies while they persist to be injurious is in itself not unmeet but highly equitable in case the History of our Redemption be true Fasting and Abstinence not unreasonable nor the parting with Estates and Lives for the asserting of the Gospel From the Laws of Christ we have a fair way for the Pardon of all Sins What the Law of Faith require of us How much it is different from the Old Law. What the Law of Repentance is Too many make Faith and Repentance to stand in opposition to the other Laws of our Lord. How the Laws being done away which was Engraven on Stones is to be understood Repentance for Sin cannot without the greatest Absurdity be wrested to the further and more safe committing of Sin. The Examples of the Thief on the Cross and of the Labourers in the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour consider'd None of the Divine Laws unsuitable to one another These Laws of themselves are grievous unto none As they have relation only to Civil Society and the welfare of Men in this World they do far surpass those of the most noted Lawgivers They by no means do favour the Opinion that Right of Possession is Founded in Grace And that it is Lawful to resist Sovereign Princes in the Maintenance of True Religion They make the Man truly beautiful within EVBVLVS AFter that store of Visitants in whose obliging Conversation your Afternoon I hear hath been spent I had thought Theophilus that your Evening Retirement would have been forgot if not wholly hindred and I began to be content that my Walk must to Night be lonely THEOPHILVS NO Eubulus I did not intend to leave you so you see I am at liberty and though I am much Delighted with the Company of Temperate and Ingenious Friends as these to Day were yet I could not forget when they were gone that Eubulus would be here I am I confess much taken with that pleasantness which ariseth from a number of good Friends together but I more enjoy myself with One alone if that One be like my Eubulus The Other smooth my Forehead into Smiles This I will say doth me good at Heart And therefore permit me without further Ceremony to put you in Mind of what will be so Grateful unto me Viz. Your vindicating of the Divine Laws against those who say That granting the Precepts of Christianity are very full and enjoyn'd to a greater Spirituality than in olden Time yet the Severities of them are unreasonable to Vs as we are Men reducing us to such Straights as cannot be gone through without a great deal of Vneasiness if at all And though there be you say none who will not commend a pure Air yet if it be so thin and pure as not to be breath'd in without much difficulty there is no Reason it should be over-delighted in and loved Eubul With Acknowledgments of your kind Expressions to me which I wish I could deserve but am very sensible I do not I would in reference to the Objection of these Men know what those Severities those Straights are which they mean as unreasonable so should we the more clearly answer them Theoph. I remember I heard these things particularly mentioned by them Viz. That the Laws of Christ beat down those Inclinations and Appetites which are Natural unto us That they dash the Pleasure of Conversation by threatning every word that is impertinent or awry with the dreadful Day of Judgment Matth. 12.36 Which instead of Chearfulness in a Mans self and Courtesie to his Friends may in Him excite an anxious Fearfulness and towards them a silent or morose Deportment That they require the Loving of Enemies even while they persist to be injurious which they say deprives us of that sense of Honour and Courage which as we are Men should belong to us and makes way also for new and greater Injuries to be done us That they enjoyn the Macerating the Body with Fasting and Abstinence which what is it but the making a Man cruel to his own Flesh Yea that they bind us to part with our Estates and Lives for the asserting the Gospel when merely some outward Compliance and a Denial of some few things only and this no otherwise than in shew for a time would preserve us Which is an hard saying and who say they can bear it Eubul Truly I think this is the whole they can object and with how little Reason they do it I shall I trust sufficiently shew As to the first viz. That the Laws of Christ beat down those Inclinations and Appetites which are Natural